Saturday, December 23, 2017

Decatur – Badder Than Brooklyn

Decatur is the newest moniker for
Toronto-based heavy metal band Caym. Our paths have crossed a couple of times
before, as I’d seen the band live in 2013 and 2015 under their old name. Truthfully, they were far
too groove-laden (i.e. metalcore and Pantera-influenced) to be any good in a
live setting, particularly as both bills had far superior bands. A new identity
marks an opportunity for change, however, and “Badder Than Brooklyn” shows this
to be partially true. To the album’s credit, it gets off to a decent start. “Internal
War” kicks the record off with the thrashiest riffing on the album, and the
following track opens with some Maiden-inspired harmonized leads. These types
of moments are few and far between, however, as the band quickly reverts to
their tough-guy influences.

While these two tracks have their upsides,
most songs don’t. The speed is occasionally there, but the half-baked growling,
lack of powerful drumming, and avoidance of melodic hooks makes for a largely
boring effort. The biggest problem that bands like Decatur have is a fundamental
philosophical difference in what heavy metal should be about. There’s a reason
why it’s easy for many metal fans to enjoy everything from power metal to black
metal to thrash metal, yet almost all of us fail to enjoy any band whose main
influence is Pantera. Even if the means each band uses are different, most
metal bands strive to conjure the same feelings. It’s not about trying to look
cool or pretending to be the angriest person around. It’s mostly about
empowerment in some form, and bands like Decatur seem fail to understand that,
and ultimately miss the mark.